197 schemes worth Rs 125 cr cleared for Delhi's rural areas

New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) Delhi's Rural Development Board today cleared 197 schemes worth Rs 125 crore for the development of rural pockets in the capital.

The projects were given the go-ahead at a meeting of the Board convened under the chairmanship of state Urban Development Minister Rajkumar Chauhan.

Briefing mediapersons, Mr Chauhan said the Government was committed to providing all basic facilities in the rural areas, before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. While an amount of Rs 183 crore was spent for this purpose last year, this year Rs 163 crore is being spent, he added.

He said the Rural Development Board sanctioned 807 developmental schemes since the year 2004 when the Board was reconstituted.

But this year alone it sanctioned 1027 schemes for rural areas.

He also pointed out that the schemes worth Rs 795 crore have been sanctioned so far for the all-round development of the villages, which is a significant achievement on the part of the Development Board.

He said that the Government was taking all necessary steps to improve the supply of water and electricity in rural areas. Six proposals for lighting in the villages have been sanctioned in this meeting and an amount of Rs four crore would be spent on it. He said the concerned officials of Delhi Jal Board and Electricity Department have been issued necessary instructions in this regard.

Effective steps were also being taken for the development of 476 ponds in all the 192 villages of Delhi, he said.

Besides Mr Chauhan, the Board's chairman, legislators, Divisional Commissioner, Deputy Commissioners of the concerned Districts, officers of the Rural Development Board and senior officers of MCD and Delhi Jal Board were also present at the meeting.

The MLAs of the rural areas were asked to present more proposals for development of their areas in the meeting.

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